rural escapism

His films like 'The New World' and 'A Hidden Life' romanticize nature and rural life as spiritual refuges from modern civilization.

Works such as 'Still Walking' and 'Shoplifters' explore the melancholy beauty of rural and small-town Japanese communities as spaces of human connection.

His socially conscious films like 'Kes' and 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' depict rural landscapes as both idyllic and sites of resistance against systemic displacement.